Posted on 10/17/2003 4:46:34 AM PDT by Desdemona
What the article says about untrained guitarists is one hundred per cent true. You're likely to find any schmo who can form three chords standing around the sanctuary strumming . . . and as the article says, not always in tune.
Also a good point that the sound of a guitar is swallowed up in the typical sanctuary. Unless it's miked -- which leads us to another whole problem. I HATE miked music - especially in church, where the building is usually designed for unamplified music. It sounds awful.
The Episcopal cathedral in Atlanta has possibly the worst acoustics of any major cathedral in the country (they ran out of money and put the roof on early - it was supposed to be Gothic but wound up looking kind of Romanesque - the organist used to say, "Welcome to our Squat Church.") The dean has tried all sorts of different electronic arrangements, but nothing works. There are huge dead zones just west of the transept and just east of the narthex where you literally can hear NOTHING, not even your neighbor singing next to you.
The cultists of bad taste need to be deprogrammed or sent out to pasture. No more charity or excuses for outrageous bad taste among the music ministry mafia.
Truly good church music can be one of the most beautiful and spiritually uplifting parts of the liturgy. Here are the observations of a Catholic priest who fills in at an Anglican Use church:
Here, I need to offer an observation about the music. There is nothing more frustrating than attempting to discuss music in Catholic worship. It is maddening. Many Catholics are fierce partisans of the contemporary renewal music of the Eagles Wings variety. They are insensible to how transitory this music actually proves to be, how quickly the new hits become tired (and how most of the congregation doesn't even attempt to sing them!), how much of the music in Glory and Praise, the folk hymnal, has dated terribly after just a few years and is never sung at all. Traditional Catholics, on the other hand, often long for the glory days of Mother Dear, O Pray for Me, the St Gregory hymnal and the old devotional hymns.Rest of his essay here.It was my experience as a choir boy in my parish church which first sparked my interest in Anglican liturgy -- our choirmaster was a convert, which was a blessing, and one soon figured out where all of these wonderful motets and hymns were coming from. In the Anglican Use liturgy, one draws upon a hymnal of six to eight hundred hymns, solidly Scriptural and Liturgical (you come for Mass on the Feast of St Michael and All Angels, you get hymns honoring the Angels; you come on the Annunciation, you get Annunciation hymns!!). The hymns are PART OF THE WORSHIP -- the whole congregation joins prayerfully in the whole hymn, from beginning to end, instead of using it as filler and doing a verse and a half until Father gets to the chair. And the parts of the Mass - Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sursum Corda, Agnus Dei - are all set to beautiful, singable music.
For me, the whole experience of worship is transformed when I have the chance to celebrate in the Anglican Use. I'm a cradle Catholic; I made my First Holy Communion in 1967. I grew up in the age of postconciliar liturgical renewal. I vividly remember making my way to the altar rail in 1968 as the folk group bawled out, Blowing in the Wind. I am used to polyester vestments, incredibly banal liturgical texts, poorly chosen hymns rushed through and cut off as soon as possible, the forty-five minuteSunday Mass (the Catholic Church's answer to fast food restaurants).
Our music is the best, and the reason I have stuck with the church during its slow-motion collapse. See above.
A sufficient quantity of cash will ameliorate the damage, though... I'll have my lawyer send your lawyer a letter.
;-}
It's real music and not junk.
Go here and here - especially the "Angelus Autem" and listen.
Apparently you've never been subjected to an energetic rendering of "lord of the dance"...I offer my suffering up every time I have to listen to that "tune". Give me boring any day.
We have had pipes in the church at the Kirkin' o' the Tartans (pretty silly to be having what is essentially a Presby ceremony in an Episcopal church, but it is fun) - but they don't come in, they stop at the narthex (they're plenty loud out there!)
Got any samples?
Oh, BTW, I found a clip of what I think is the best thing Rutter ever composed - "The Lord is My Shepherd" from his Requiem. The clip is just not long enough. Great oboe solo though.
That’s the problem, much of the modern music used, at least in my parish, seems to sacrifice the worshipful for the entertaining. Some pieces will, with out a doubt, stand the test of time. Those pieces will stand because the are worshipful, beautiful and timeless. Sadly, much of what we hear today does not add to the Mass. It’s a distraction and not a useful form of worship.
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